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Revitalizing Danforth East neighbourhood one pop-up store at a time

Popuphood movement has had great success in Newcastle, Australia, so why not here in Toronto?

Volunteer Melissa Peretti pours more ceiling paint into her tray, as Julia Porter paints the baseboards of the vacant store. Catherine Porter heads up team converting an empty storefront on the Danforth into a pop-up store. (DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

I spent a morning this week painting an empty store near my house with some neighbours.

It was our payment for a month’s rent — not for us, but for two temporary pop-up storefronts.

That’s right — we were volunteering so someone else can make money. Our payment, we hope, will be the cure for our main street’s desolation — and an adventure.

Let me explain: I live at the east end of Danforth Ave. where the Greek restaurants have long fizzled into thrift shops and empty stores. Real estate agents have called this a “neighbourhood in transition” for decades now. And we have made changes — a bustling farmers’ market, an annual craft fair, one of those resurrected pumpkin walks. If you were around last Thursday, you would have seen our park exploding with people and ponies and bouncy castles and face painters for Harvest Fest.

But, the problem of the empty storefronts remain.

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Down one block of the Danforth alone, every third store is vacant and has slumped empty for years. Many of the full stores on that block aren’t much better — with dusty displays from the 1950s, three-day work weeks, or the new trend: a dark film over the window indicating someone who doesn’t want to be seen is in there.

Together, they are like black teeth in a mouth. They make the area feel seedy and unsafe. They drive prospective shoppers elsewhere, draining potential profits from the remaining storefronts trying to actually sell stuff. Because really, who wants to shop in a ghost town?

Now, those real estate agents have been predicting the rebirth of the Danforth for decades. A new condominium has replaced Starbucks as our upcoming sure-to-win lottery ticket.

But we are sick of waiting.

Eight months ago, a bunch of neighbours and I started planning our latest attempt to revitalize our main street, this time through pop-up — or temporary — stores.

We stole the idea from Newcastle, Australia, a steel town 1.5 hours north of Sydney. Four years ago, its downtown was dead with 150 boarded up storefronts on the two main drags alone. Then, a guy named Marcus Westbury convinced a big local landlord to offer some of his empty storefronts free to local budding entrepreneurs until a paying tenant came along. Guess what? All the buzz and extra foot traffic brought paying tenants back downtown filling just about every shop on the main pedestrian mall. Last year, the Lonely Planet listed Newcastle in its Top 10 Cities to visit list.

We’re not the only copycats. The idea has spread to England, Tennessee and Oakland, Calif., where Popuphood co-founder Sarah Filley tells me the area’s general office rent went up 30 cents a square foot and four new restaurants moved in because of the pop-up buzz.

So why not Danforth East?

My little group of neighbours has done a lot of homework. We’ve surveyed the operating store owners and sleuthed out some empty store owners as well. What we’ve discovered so far has surprised me: the vacancies are often personal, not market-driven. One landlord has planned to do something with the space for a dozen years, but never saved enough money to renovate. Another lives upstairs and can’t stand the idea of a stranger in the space. A woman who opens her shop only three days a week explained it was a hobby to keep her from going nuts in retirement.

These landlords don’t care about their wallets. So, we’ve appealed to their social conscience. They are part of our neighbourhood too. They should help us build, not deflate, the area’s hub.

Last month, we found our first takers — a couple that own a building in that decrepit block. They altruistically want to help the neighbourhood and selfishly hope the project will land them a great new paying tenant. They’ve given us their space free for one month. We decided to use that short time as pop-up teaser, putting different entrepreneurs into the newly cleaned and painted (by us!) storefront over two weekends.

We spread the word, soliciting 200-word proposals for the space. A week later, we had more than 50 applications, ranging from the obvious art gallery to the entertaining clown workshops. All but two were thoughtful, concise and inspiring.

Second riddle solved: There is clearly no dearth of want-to-be-store-owners in this part of town. The empty store problem is not one of supply.

We shortlisted six applicants and interviewed four earlier this week. On Monday, we chose two — a locally-made clothing and accessories vendor who has a store in the west end and wants to test our eastern shores, and a neighbourhood artist who runs the farmers’ market craft table and hopes to make a living teaching kids art.

Each will get the space for a weekend at the end of this month.

A lot could go wrong: No people, no sales, a gory injury (we’ve lined up liability insurance and a lawyer, don’t worry).

A weekend is hardly enough time to shine. In Oakland, pop-ups are guaranteed six months of free space and still some fail.

But maybe, something will go right. That’s the adventure part of this social experiment. We just don’t know what magic might happen.

In Oakland, another Business Improvement Association has hired Popuphood to come to their area.

In Newcastle, once real estate agents saw the effect of the pop-ups, they began to fund the projects.

Who would have expected that?

All I know is we are trying something, which is always better than waiting and wishing for change.

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